Underwater
by Space Cadet 717
Summary: The push and pull of the furious ocean was too powerful. I kept screaming as I felt all the air forced from my lungs. //Dramatized IoH opening// \\One-Shot\\ //Mild Chelsea x Eric fluff//


**Okay, just to warn you, I'm one of those pathetic anime-wannabes who use Japanese words in their English fanfics. I don't plan to do this very often, but since I really enjoyed writing this (because I have a sick and twisted mind and I find pleasure in tormenting my characters), I decided to double my fun. But since I used what I learned in my Japanese class at school, which teaches a certain dialect that not many people know, I'm going to give you a little cheat-sheet for you to refer back to as you're reading this.**

**Natalie refers to Eric (Elliot) as "Eric ani-chan," which means "Older brother Eric." In return, Eric calls her "Natalie imouto-chan," which means "Younger sister Natalie." They both call Ferena (Felicia) "Haha-sama," which means "Mom." They call Tarou (Taro) "Sofu-sama," which translates as "Grandpa." (It's uncommon for people in Japan to use their family members' first names alone. In fact, usually they just call their younger sisters, for example, "imouto-chan," and omit their name entirely.) Natalie and Eric refer to Chelsea as "Chelsea-san," and she calls them "Natalie-san and Eric-san." The honorific ending "-san" is for someone whom you don't know very well, and since they have just met, obviously they're going to refer to each other as that.**

**Okay, now on with the story! I hope you enjoy!**

xx

Underwater

xx

People were screaming.

I opened my eyes just in time to be thrown out of my rental bed by the convulsing floor. With a painful crack I landed on the swaying wooden boards. Somehow, through the shock and confusion of the situation, my brain managed to form a single sentence.

_What the hell is going on?_

My hands scrabbled around in front of me until I finally managed to flatten my palms against the floor in order to push myself up. The air around me was as black as pitch. I couldn't see a thing. Frantically, I felt around in front of me, trying to find something, as if I needed proof that I wasn't already dead.

Dead? Where had that thought come from? Was this nightmare life-threatening?

_What the hell is going on?!_ I repeated the phrase in my head, this time with more panic. My pulse quickened as I searched and searched for something to grab onto. More screaming filled my ears, and I squeezed my eyes shut in horror, although the action made no change to my sight. Finally I felt something underneath my fingers, and without thinking and scooped it up and drew it close to my chest.

It was a small square of cloth by the feel of it. It was real. This was all real. But what was happening? Delicately, my breathing heavy with fear, I stumbled to my feet with the cloth still held tightly in my grasp. As soon as I was upright, however, the ground gave another violent lurch and I found myself lying on my back. Reflexively, my mouth opened up and I started to shriek, joining the horrible chorus.

No. I wasn't going to figure anything out by panicking. I bit my tongue and forced myself to stand again. Stumbling as I went, I made my way over to the door and pushed it open. Outside, rain was coming down in sheets and the sky was the most horrible shade of dark gray I'd ever seen. I felt my lips part once again with horror, but I forbade myself from screaming again. It was clear that there was already too much of that.

Somehow I managed to enter the main deck. People were running, colliding with me, and then picking themselves up and running again. It was chaos. Even the ship was rocking, as if it was as much a part of the scramble as anyone else. And perhaps it was.

After a while, I began to recognize some of the screams as words.

"It's a storm!"

"She's going down!"

"Get everyone to the lifeboats!"

"Hurry!"

I felt someone grab me. I allowed myself a small yelp of surprise before whoever it was began to drag me towards the lifeboats. Whoever he or she was, this person was helping me. But by the time I turned my head to thank the person, the throng had already torn him or her away. So I made it my mission to rush towards the rafts.

The first one was full. They were already lowering themselves into the vicious waters. I turned in the direction of a second one, but no sooner had I taken my first step than a wave suddenly crashed over the edge of the boat. I slipped and slid down the tilted deck until I crashed into a perpendicular wall. With a moan, I fumbled around with my hands to find a decent handhold to hoist myself up. Finally, I lifted myself shakily over the railing and attempted to move.

I heard a loud, sickening crack, and my head turned instinctively in that direction just in time to see a ferocious fork of lightning reach down to the very center of the ship. There was an explosion, with debris flying everywhere, and the ground gave another lurch.

The jump wrenched my hands from the slippery railing, and I found myself hanging halfway over it precariously. I felt my arms and legs flail as I tried and failed to regain my balance. But, with the combined forces of the wind and water, I had no chance. Again, I involuntarily screamed, and this time for good reason.

I was thrown off the side of the ship and plunged deep into the freezing water. My limbs thrashed against the current frantically, of course to no avail. The push and pull of the furious ocean was to powerful. I kept screaming as I felt all the air forced from my lungs.

_I'm going to die._

No!

Finally, with a miraculous adrenaline-fueled shot of strength, I broke the surface and sucked in a razor-sharp breath of precious oxygen. As soon as I did, however, another wave crashed over my head and dragged me down into the crushing black waters. My outstretched hands found their way back to the air, but the current tugged at the rest of my body, restricting my head from surfacing. My lungs quickly emptied again, but luckily another burst of strength allowed me to claw at the water and find my way to the breathable air again.

This repeated a few times before I remembered that I wasn't alone. I struggled to keep my head above water long enough to shout. Finally, I found my voice and a cry erupted from my lips.

"_Help!_" I shrieked. "_He—_" Before I could finished, my mouth bobbed underwater again, and I accidentally swallowed a gulp of the frigid saltwater. I choked a little, and then continued to shriek. "_Help! I'm drowning! Help me—somebody—help!!_" More water forced its way into my throat. Still, I persevered, refusing to give up the slim hope of survival. "_Somebody...please...I'm drowning...I'm...help...HELP!!_"

Finally, I heard some cries from up ahead. "Look! Oh no!"

"There's a girl in the water!"

"Someone get her!"

"I think she's drowning!" (_No shit, Sherlock._)

People were responding. They could hear me! Relief flooded into my chest, and I continued to cry so they could find me. "_Help! Please! Someone! I'm here! Help!_"

At last, I felt hands wrap around my wrists to hold me above water. "It's okay, we've got you," assured a man's voice.

I choked on some more water, and panic began to wash over me again. Why weren't they lifting me into the boat?! They weren't strong enough to pull me from the current! No!

"D-don't let go!" I begged, terrified tears forming in my eyes. "Please! Help me! Don't let me go! Help! Help! Please! Don't let go...!"

"We've got you," the man repeated, but I wasn't convinced.

I gripped his arm frantically, trying to pull myself up. "Please, please, please!" I pleaded further, my voice rising in pitch and volume with panic. "Save me! Help! Please! No! Help!" I never stopped screaming.

The hands worked their way down my arms until they reached my shoulders, and then tried to pull me onto the boat. The whole time, I kept hearing voices repeating, "We've got you, you're safe now, it's okay..."

If it was okay now, why wasn't I on the boat? My tears mixed with the ocean and rain as I tried to claw my way over the wooden wall that separated me from safety. Slowly, I realized the source of my panic: wet skin against wet skin; their grips slowly slipped from my arms. Every time they pulled me closer, the ocean sucked me back downwards.

"No! No, no! No!" I sobbed. "Help! Please! Please! Save me! No!"

But my begging was futile. Their kind assurances slowly switched to shouts of, "No!" and "Help! She's slipping!" and "Save her!" and, worst of all, "I can't hold on!" Finally, I felt myself ripped away from them, and the sea dragged me down.

Once again, I felt screams tearing from my throat, but this time they were cut short by no will of my own. Saltwater flooded into my lungs. My thrashing gradually became weaker. My vision faded to absolute blindness. I could tell I was dozens of meters underwater by now.

_I'm going to die._

The last thing I remembered was sobbing into the water, and then everything went black.

XXX

Eric ran his fingers through his short red hair nervously. He and the rest of his family had finally dried off, and his mother was currently busying herself setting up the few possessions they had managed to rescue from the sinking ship. His grandfather was fiddling with a small transmitter. And his sister...

"Hey, Eric ani-chan! Come over here!"

...was planning something that couldn't possibly be good for him.

Eric moaned, but made his way over to where she was waiting nevertheless. "What do you want, Natalie imouto-chan?" he asked, even though he didn't want to know at all.

Natalie was gazing at the vast beach that stretched ahead of them. "Let's recap," she said. "Our cruise was sinking, so we got onto a lifeboat and wound up on this deserted island, right?"

"That's right."

"So, what do you do when you land on a totally new area that's never been explored before?"

"Actually, Natalie imouto-chan," Eric corrected, "Sofu-sama said that this was probably once a pretty popular place. We found some boarded-up buildings, remember?"

She rolled her eyes as if he was being nit-picky. "Yeah, yeah," she said passively. "But the point is, since we don't know anything about this place, what should we do?"

Eric sighed and bit his lip. He knew he was going to regret continuing this conversation at all. "Okay, I'll bite," he said reluctantly. "What do we do?"

"We check it out, of course!" Natalie said. Then she smirked challengingly. "Unless you're too _chicken_, that is."

Crap. He knew something like this was going to happen. "B-but Natalie imouto-chan!" he protested. "Sofu-sama said we needed to stay together!"

"You and I will be together," she said mischievously. She grabbed his arm and started tugging him towards the beach. "Come on, don't be a wimp!"

Years of bullying and arguing had made Eric weak. He knew that he had no chance of winning this fight. "Fine, but I won't like it," he moaned, and reluctantly followed his sister down to the shore.

Half an hour of "innocent" exploring later, Natalie looked back at her older brother and giggled cruelly. "You look half-dead, Eric ani-chan," she teased. "Don't tell me you're scared of taking a little walk."

He tried to glare at her. "We've just been shipwrecked on a deserted island," he defended himself. "I have the right to be traumatized."

To his surprise, her expression softened. "Yeah," she mused, and turned back towards the beach. She seemed to be scouting out the next place to visit.

_Even Natalie knows how serious this is,_ Eric thought. While his sister scanned the shoreline, he suddenly found himself reminiscing about that stormy night once again. Deciding to risk being called paranoid, he voiced his thoughts, more to himself than to Natalie.

"Do you remember that one girl?" he said sadly. "The one with the brown hair and blue eyes? I never talked to her, but I saw her a couple of times on the first few days. She seemed like a pretty brave person to me."

"Yeah."

He went on: "But when the ship was sinking... I think you saw it too, didn't you? She was thrown overboard. A couple of people tried to help her, but the current ended up pulling her away."

Natalie nodded. "That had to be the saddest thing I'd ever seen. She was _begging_ them to save her, but they couldn't." Eric couldn't read her expression, as she was still turned towards the beach.

Eric sighed. "She seemed like a good person. I wish could have known her."

Natalie made an "mm" sound.

"It's horrible." Again, Eric ran his fingers through his hair. The wind—an aftereffect of said storm—kept blowing it out of place. "She must have been so scared. If only I could have helped... I wonder what it was like for her, being pulled under. Dying." He felt a lump form in his throat, and cursed himself for bringing up the subject in the first place.

"Maybe you can ask her yourself."

Eric's jaw dropped at the grisly joke. "Th-that's not funny, Natalie imouto-chan!" he snapped angrily.

She didn't answer. Instead, she pointed.

XXX

I felt a trickle of water spew from my lips, and a second later I realized I was coughing. My sore arms moved slowly, investigating the rough substance beneath me. Sand. Finally, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurred and my head throbbed. I couldn't piece together a single thought.

...

_What happened?_

I shook my aching head to clear it and then brought my hand to my forehead. Sunlight filtered through my eyelashes, and, ever so slowly, my sight cleared. In front of me, I managed to make out a young face. A boy's. Red hair, blue eyes, glasses, about my age.

He broke into a broad smile. "Natalie imouto-chan! She's waking up! She's okay!"

A girl—his sister Natalie, I presume—leaned in as if inspecting me. She smiled as well. "Alright!" she cheered. "Hey, you speak Japanese, right? What's your name?

I blinked and remained silent for a second, taking all of this in. "...It's Chelsea," I mumbled at last. "So...I'm alive?"

"Right!" Natalie said. "I'm Natalie, and this is my older brother Eric. Nice to meet you!"

"I'm so glad you're okay," said Eric warmly.

"Where are we?" I gazed around. The siblings were kneeling beside me, and the three of us were in the middle of a vast beach. But where was everyone else?

"When the ship went down, we—meaning my family and I—wound up on this island," Natalie explained. "Haha-sama is working on building a shelter for us, and sofu-sama is getting the rescue radio to work. Everything is going fine, so don't worry."

Eric's smile suddenly vanished. "Oh no! Haha-sama and sofu-sama still don't know where we are! We have to get back!"

"Fine, fine," Natalie said. "I can't wait to introduce them to Chelsea-san. Let's go!"

I tried to follow as they started walking, but a sharp pain in my left leg paralyzed me. I turned to see the reason, and spotted a large bruise running up my entire calf. "Ow. Um, Eric-san, could you give me a hand?" I lifted up my arm to the nearer of the two siblings.

"Huh? Uh, s-sure." He helped me up awkwardly, and then blushed violently when I leaned on him for support.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I don't think I can walk on my own for now. ...Are you okay?"

"N-no, it's fine."

Natalie looked over her shoulder and grinned. "Eric ani-chan is pathetic with women," she explained devilishly. "Don't worry about him. He may start hyperventilating, but that usually only lasts a few minutes."

"_Natalie!_" he growled, clearly humiliated. He purposely dropped the "ani-chan" title to show his anger.

"Um, it's alright," I said, patting his shoulder. He looked away, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling in amusement.

"Oh yeah, and he wanted to ask you something," Natalie went on. "We were just talking about you before we found you, ironically. We saw you go down and Eric ani-chan was wondering what it felt like when you were in the water."

"_Shut up, Natalie!_" Eric moaned. He looked at me apologetically. "You don't have to answer, Chelsea-san. Natalie imouto-chan is just being annoying."

"I'm fine," I assured him. I thought for a second. "To be honest, I don't remember much. I think I blocked most of it out. But it was scary... Like when I was four, and it was Halloween, and these kids in my old apartment building pretended to be werewolves! Ugh." I knew that my comparison to a harmless prank would comfort Eric, who was obviously worried about any trauma I may be feeling.

He nodded. "It's a miracle you survived," he said. "I'm so glad!" (_What a nice boy,_ I judged.)

"It's funny. I never thought I would have that kind of luck," I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I happened to glance down, and I noticed that, somehow, I still had the piece of fabric from before clutched in my hand. I saw now that it was a sunset-red bandanna.

"Maybe you found a magic charm when you were on the boat," Natalie joked.

I grinned and fastened the bandanna around my forehead. "Who knows? Maybe I did."

XXX

**And that's it! Did you like it? :)**

**I don't know about you, but I've always pictured Chelsea's bandanna as a sort of good luck charm, or at least something with sentimental value to her. I don't know why...I guess I'm just weird like that. So...yeah. A piece of cloth saves her from drowning. Okay then.**

**And how about my attempt at a little Chelsea x Eric fluff? No? Hmm... Oh well. I still love that pairing. I would totally marry him if it wasn't for Valts (Vaughn). KYA!! VALTS!! ...But Eric's cute, too. Hehehe.**

**More fanfics to come! Better hide while you can!**


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